Process of mixing fuel for carbureters.



q. HIGGINS, JR. PROCESS OF MIXING FUEL FOR GARBURETBBS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 9, 1910.

1,077,881. Patented N614, 1913. I

.Fia. 2

NITED STATES PATENT enric WILLIAM H. C. HIGGINS, JR., OF LAPORTE, INDIANA.

PROCESS OF MIXING FUEL FOR CARBURETER-S.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 4,1913.

Application filed July 9, 19m. Serial No. 571,168.-

To all-whom at may cancer-n:

Be it known that I, lVInLIAM H. C. HIG- erxs, Jr., a citizen of the United States, re-. siding at Laporte, in the countyof Laporte and State of Indiana, have. inventeda certain new and useful Improvem nt in Proc- Like in allthe figures.

parts-are indicated by the same letter A is a shell which with the -mixing chamber A B is a hydrocarbon jor fuel valve supthe wall A forms plied from the pipe B and provided with the nozzle B which discharges into the mixing chamber. 1 4

C is a' similar liquid or'water valve-provided with the supply pipe-C and with the nozzle C which discharges into the mix- 1n, chambers D is a mixture discharge port and D the connection whieh leads thence to the-engine. 13,13 are air supply ports, one of them controlled-by'the shutterE and opening both into the air passageway E F 1s a slide valve having an aperture F therein adapted to control asindicated the I mixture discharge port and the air supply port and operated in "any desired manner, or

'byany desired motive power bymeans of the lever F which passes out through the case.

Ihave spoken of hydrocarbon and Water valves but the "essential point is that I connect to the mixer a hydrocarbon and a water supply pipe. The valve is only for the pur-' Dose. of adjustingthe size of the aperture butineach case the oil or water is drawn fromthe supply pipe by the vacuum in the mixing chamber. It is that vacuum which causes the fluid to flow and by varying the vacuunrthe flow of fluid is varied. This variation in the vacuum results of course, fronrthe operation of the engine. hen the engine is at high speed and high load the slide valve F will'be in its lower position and the intake of the mixture discharge port into the engine will be wide open to take in alarge quantity of mixture and the vacuum in the engine will be relatively low owing to the ease with which the mixture is drawn through the wide-open mixture discharge port. At the same time the slide valve being in its lower position the air inlet will have the mixture discharge port, with the result increasedv because of the relative freedom of the mixture discharge and the relative retardation of air-inlet. The supply of oil or water is such as to cause the respective feeds to vary unequally and preferably so that while the oil begins to feed at low load,

time thereafter, and so that when the water -does begin .to feed its feed will increase high load their amounts will be in many instances approximately equal. The arrangement of parts must therefore be such as to bring about this result. In other words any suitable means forcontrolliug the liquid supply pipes may be used, though in the particular form of the device, as I use it, and as it is here illustrated; needle valves are employed. Of course, it will be understood \that this variation can be obtained in various ways, as for example by having; the distance through which the water must be lifted be lifted or by having the oil opendifferent position in the chamber from the water opening or. where there will be an eflective-ditierence in the action of the vacuumat'their respective openings or by combining any or all of these or other means for bringing about the result which is important in my process.

The devices. whatever they are, whether needle valves or any other mechanism, should be adjusted so that the oil or fuel will flow with any degree of vacuum and so that the Water will only begin to How at a relatively high vacuum. In other words, the two. valves do not respond equally to the same Vacuum. As the vacuum increases after the water begins to flow the increase in that the vacuum in the carbureter will be the water will not begin to feed until some in larger than the water opening" or .by. l11Vl1] 2 the oil opening at a slightly.

been increased in area, but more slowly than v more rapidly than that of the oil until at greater than that though which theoil must opening.

flow of. water is more rapid than the increase in flow of fuel responsive tothe increasing Inlthe actual practice of my process in a given instance I have arranged the parts so that such a vacuum as I have described will be formed in the mixing chamber and the oil and water openings enter the mixing chamher at the same level. The level of the oil is higher'than the level of the water with respect to the level at which their passages open into the mixing chamber. Usually also the water opening is smaller than the oil And in the case to which I have referred there is practically no feed of water upto half-load and thereafter it increases so rapidlythat there is approximate equality of oil and water fed atthehi'gh load. -It'will.be evident that, although I have shown in my drawing an operative'device,

manychange's might be made both in size,

shape and arrangement of parts without de-- parting'm'aterially from the spirit of' my invention, and wish therefore that these drawings be regarded as m a sense, diagrammatic.

The use and operation of my invention therefore, causes a suitable vacuum in the oarbureting chamber, which vacuum draws from the needle valve, the requisite amount of hydrocarbon and as this vacuum varies difierentamounts of the hydrocarbon are drawn out. The same action takes place with regard to the water valve except that this valve is adjusted so that a higher vacuummust be had in the carbureting chamher before the water commences to flow.

When once' the water commences to flow, however, and the vacuum continues to in crease, greater proportlonal amounts of water are drawn out in view of the fact that any increase in vacuum produces a corre sponding increase in the flow from each valve but since the water flow start-s later' than the hydrocarbon flow the proportionate increase is greater. This is what actually occurs in actual ractice as hereinbefore set out. The shutter 11d slide valve are so ad'- justed that for. an increasing load an increasing vacuum is had. Therefore, the maximum amount of water and the maximum amount of hydrocarbon are both discharged for a maximum load, and the hydrocarbon and water discharges both increase from no decrease the eificiency of the engine.

undesirableto have any water in the-mix-' ture. This is because at low loads the comload up to maximum load and the relation pression in the engineis lower and therefore a richer mixture is needed in order to have satisfactory combustion. A mlxture dlluted with water would be cooled to such a point that combustion either would not take place or would be imperfect. When the conditions have returned to the point at which no further water is required, or say, atsome point below half-load, those conditions will have been reached where, on account of the small size of the water opening or otherwise the vacuum will be insuflicient to draw thewater therefrom while in this case the oil opening being larger the vacuum will be suificientto draw the oil from it. The shutter which controls part of the air intake is fixed once and for all whenthe e'arbureter is first adjusted-for the engine, and requiresnofurther change, this adjustment being made by experiment in-the case of each particularengine; Obviously all of these adjustments or variations in the supply of materials could be carried on by hand. The slide valves could be from time to time adjusted so as to bring about the desired vacuum and the oil and water feed valves or supplies could be in like manner operated by hand so as to produce the desired results. Water also acts to regulate the distribution of pressure during the working stroke. At the moment of explosion, the water is fully vaporized, transformed into super-heated steam, and then gives off the heat of the super-heating during the latter portion of the stroke, thus maintaining the temperatures and pressures higher at the end of the stroke than they would otherwise be. In addition to this ac tion, when the temperature becomes sulficiently high, the super-heated'steam, or at least a part of it, is-dissociated' into H H O. This monatomic oxygen then combines with the free carbon, and, the hydrogen which remains combines with the diatomic oxygen of the atmosphere, thus giving a much more complete combustion and producing a scour ing efiect in the cylinder, in addition to liberating, 'at the latter portion of the stroke,

large quantities of heat, which helps to keep up-the mean effective pressure. It is important, however, that the water he 'notintroduced at the lower working ranges because the temperatures are so low that the water operates to prevent combustion and to or this reas on the means which I have provided for introducing the water and for correlating the time at which water andhydrcicarhon enter the carbureting chamber are of the utmost importance especially in view of the fact that when once adjusted no further adjustment is required and the device will be operative for an indefinite length of time without change, For convenience I have shown a form of,

structure in which my process of mixing fuel for carburetors can be carried on but, of course, it is obvious that any one of the infinite variety of devices could be more or less effectually used. to carry out the process.

It will be understood, of course, that my invention-is applicable to the use, of any kind of hydrocarbon fuel such as oil, gasolene, alcohol andoth'er similar fluids.

The termmixing chamber I use in its general significance. It is, of course, conceivable that some portion of the engine itself might serve as such mixing chamber. I.

employ the term charge to indicate what is supplied toft-he engine asja matter of convenience of expression.- The meaning of the term unequally varying as applied to the substances of which the charge is made isevident from the foregoing for the quantity of water i 'aries but unequally with the variations of the quantity of hydrocarbon; The method of supplying. the substances by means of the variations in the vacuum of a mixing chamber is, as I now view it", the-pre ferred method but, of course, these. sub-- stances or some or all of them, could be supplied or fed to the mixing chamber or engine by other means than or by means addi- -tional to such variation of the vacuum- I have shown an apparatus, but as above suggested it is tobe understood for the pur poses of this invention, as merely diagrammatic or suggestive for the process 1 s capa ble of beingcarried out in various waysand One part of my invention therefore relates to the introduction of'fucl and water by any sort of an apparatus to the carburetor, but in such manner as to vary their feeds with respect to one another, that is for example, so that the oil begins to feed first, or in creases its feed more slowly than the feed of-thc water,

Another part of iny'invention relates to the feeding of fuel andavater in the man ncr above suggested or otherwise, in response to a vacuum such as I have described and illustrated.

The operation of the vacuum in' the car-" burcting chamber depends both upon the suction conditions, that is to say, the pressure condition in the engine cylinder, and

also upon the relative openings of intake.

and discharge ports. Assuming that the intake and discharge ports are fixed for a time and the vacuum in the cylinder increases or decreases, the vacuum in the carbureting chamber will also increase or decrease in unison with the increase or decrease in the engine, and, assuming that the vacuum in the cylinder remains constant and the-slide valve is manipulated to vary the relative intake and discharge openings, then again the vacuum in the carbureting chamber will vary withrefcrence to the vacuum in.the

cylinder, and when in operation these two conditions prevail it is clear 'that'it cannot be said under thosecircumstances that the variation "in the vacuum chamber responds directly to the varying conditions 'in the engine cylinder, the vacuum in-the chamber being constantly controlled both bythe conditions in the engine cylinder and the varying relationsbetween the air inlets and the mixture outlet. The variation in flow as between the water and the oil may be brought about either by the manipulation of the valves or by the difference in the head oftheir respective liquids, it being assumed that the reservoir."

level of the two'liquid s' is the same, or by the difference in'the pressure of the fluids back of their respective valves, one .valve by varying the character or consistency of being vertical above the other as-shown, or

the fuel. I

The portE as shown in the drawing is similar in shape toport E but larger. \Vhen the shutter E is moved it will, of course,

vary the eitective area of the opening of the port E and when the slide F is moved in a given direction the port 'ElWill be gradually closed or gradually opened: If the I ports E and'E are of exactly the same size,

'then the difi erencebetween them would be due to the position of the shutter, but they might beof different sizes.

I claim:

1, The process of producing for gas en-.

gines, a charge Ivarying in character from low load to high load which consists in supplying. air, liquid fuel and water in' unequally varying quantities to a mixing chamber responsive to the variations in the vacuum therein, such vacuum itself responsive to the varying'conditions of the engine cylinder with which such vacuum chamber is connected, and thence discharging the same to the engine, the supply of waterboginning later 1n the cycle of operation from lowload to high load and increasing after chamber is connected, and thence discharging the same to the engine, the supply of water beginning later in the cycle of operation from low load to high load andin-' creasing after it does begin more rapidly than the feed of liquid fuel, until at high load they are approximately equal.

3. The process of producing for'gas'engines, a charge varying in character from low. load to high load, which consists in supplying air, liquid fuel and water in unequally varying quantities to a vacuum mix ing chamber responsive to the variations in the vacuum therein,such vacuum itself responsive but not directly to the varying conditions of the engine cylinder with which such vacuum chamber -is connected, and thence discharging the same'to the engine, the supply of water beginning later in the cycle of operation from low load to high load, and increasing after it does begin more rapidly'than the'feed of liquid fuel.

4. The process of producing for gas engines, a charge varying in character from low load to high load, Which consists in supplying air, liquid fuel and Water in unequally varying quantities to a vacuum n1ixing chamber responsive to the Variations in the vacuum therein, such vacuum itself responsive but not directly to the varying conditions of the engine cylinder 'with which such vacuum chamber is connected, and thence discharging the same to the engine, the supply of Water beginning later in the cycle of operation from low load to high load, and increasing after it does begin more rapidly than the feed of liquid fuel, until at high loads they are approximately equal.

WILLIAM H. C. HIGGINS, J R.

Witnesses: v

-J. A. Knzscn,

CHAS. W. BEALL. 

